BOOKS

With the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago, some films to watch set in East Germany

posted 11 Nov 2014, 03:05 by Julian Whiting

BARBARA (12A) 2012 GERMANY PETZOLD, CHRISTIAN £17.99Set in East Germany in 1980, Barbara is sent to a new job in the provinces as punishment for applying for an exit visa from the GDR. Her aim now is to escape to the West.

BEHIND THE WALL (E) 2011 KELLY, MICHAEL PATRICK £15.99Documentary with real-life accounts that tell the story of the Berlin Wall and the people living on either side of it.

GOOD BYE LENIN! (15) 2002 GERMANY BECKER, WOLFGANG £19.99One of the biggest German comedies in which an East German party loyalist comes out of an eight months coma during which time the Berlin Wall has comes down. Her children are convinced she will not cope with this change so he decide to tell her that Communism has triumphed over Capitalism and keep the pretence alive in their East Berlin flat.

LEBEN DER ANDEREN/LIVES OF OTHERS (15) 2006 GERMANY H. VON DONNERSMARCK, F £19.99Five years before the downfall of the GDR, party-loyalist Captain Gerd Wiesler hopes to boost his career when given the job of collecting evidence against the playwright Georg Dreyman and his girlfriend.

DER TUNNEL (12) 2001 GERMANY RICHTER, ROLAND SUSO £15.99Cold War thriller set in 1961. After fleeing the Communist regime in East Berlin, Harry Melchior is now determined to go back for his sister and her family.